Second work and third warrior from Forgotten Legend. Vagalume (Wandering Fire / Light).

In this work I have used everything I know about shading, lighting, blending and color matching. The background is not very detailed because I wanted to center all the attention on the character. The core of the piece is in her eyes (multiple lights added) and the most difficult part was designing her clothes (made from a blanket, joining and deforming pieces), can't remenber how many hours I worked to make those clothes look natural. Some other accesories were added, blended and shaded to give more personality to the work. The photo already had a light coming from the left side, and the shadow (yep, on the opposite side), I used that, making the lights and shadows stronger, applying the same effect on the other objects. Smudge tool was slighty applied (manually) on the whole piece to "upgrade resolution -1-", BUT, this time the smudging was very, very reduced to prevent blurriness (1 pixel Z + 1 pixel Y offset). You can still spot some blurry sectors, without affecting the quality more than the previous grainyness. I am Improving my techniques (woohoo!).

-1- Actually, there is no way to upgrade resolution, some grainyness can be removed by using the smudge tool manually, in very short ranges, as I mentioned before: 1Z + 1Y offset (with more than 2 pixels you will get too much blurriness), without touching edges. This is much better than Smart Blur filter, you just have to be very careful with the edges, and of course, you need a lot of patience.

These works wouldn't be possible without the excellent stock and tools provided.

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Breathtaking. She looks like a warrior who was once a gentle, innocent girl, but has put the past firmly behind her. Her innocent features remain, but they have a determined, harsh quality about them now. She seems to have been caught having a sudden, unexpected and sad flashback. The clothes are beautiful, and so is the background.

I have one thing to say though. The light that is streaming from the left...one ray is not parallel to the rest. Otherwise, breathtaking.

man, I just found the same piece of stock you used to make this, and I must say, your skills with a brush are amazing cause she don't look that good in the stock photo......wanna do some touch up on a pic of this ugly chick I'm dating...LOLOLOLOL

hahahhahhahah your improving your technique??? whos needs models when people like you can create em even more perfect.. hahahahhahaa damn this is deffinintly the best picture ive seen on DA as far as realism. just beautiful

You've got everything nailed on this piece! Beautiful lighting and colours and a wonderful atmosphere. If I didn't know any better I would have thought you painted the whole thing. The cloths and accessories look seamless on her
This has got to be you best work so far!!

wow this is really beautiful! Yes, other people have said it already but it has to be brought out. Her lips and her clothes are just gorgous! Really, she looks so, I don't know powerful. I don't know if this is what you were going for but she also looks somewhat sad. But it makes it a very powerful image. I love that her hair is red too........ hardly any models today have red hair. All together, the whole picture is great! I love your warriors. They are just so cool! Deffinatly a fav!